English translation:

Finnish language belongs to Uralic language family, more specific Finno-Ugric branch. Finnish is not related to many other languages in Europe, eg. English, French or Russian. Finno-Ugric languages are for example Mari, Vepsä, komi or Udmurt, which are spoken in Middle-Russia. Only Finns, Estonians and Hungarians have independent state of their own.

Finnish and Hungarian are the two extremes of this branch. The family relation of these two was proven by János Sajnovics in 18tn century. Still, Finnish and Hungarian differ a lot, and their speakers are not able to understand each other. The two languages were separated approximately 4500 years ago. They share only a few similar words, and only a professional linguist is able to see the relation. (See some common words below.)

Estonian is a close relative to Finnish. Finns and Estonians are able to understand each other quite well. For example, the numbers are almost the same in both languages.

Before the great migration in the 4th century Finno-Ugric languages were spoken all over the area which is now part of modern Russia. Today many Finno-Ugric languages are endangered. For example, there are only 200 000 speakers of Komi or 500 000 speakers of Mari. The smallest languages, such as Vepsä or Mansi, are spoken only by few thousand people.

Some examples of Finnish and Hungarian words

Hungarian words versus Finnish words

Hungarian

Finnish

English

él

elää

to live

hal

kala

fish

kéz

käsi

hand

ki

ken

who

kõ

kivi

stone

máj

maksa

liver

megy

mennä

to go

méz

mesi

honey

mi

me

we

négy

neljä

number four

név

nimi

name

nyel

niellä

to swallow

zarv

sarvi

horn

szem

silmä

eye

szív

sydän

heart

ti

te

you (plural)

új

uusi

new

vaj

voi

butter

vér

veri

blood

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